FOR the first time in the entire Caribbean, a ‘black man’ won an election, against the traditional big parties in an overwhelmingly Indian constituency in Trinidad.

That Jack Warner was able to defeat the candidate of his former UNC party in their own constituency undoubtedly speaks highly of the voters. They rejected both the Indian-based UNC and black-based PNM candidates by wide margins. We seem to be getting along don’t we?

So what lessons can be learnt from this epoch-making Warner victory?
All the scandals of international corruption which Warner faced including fraud did not seem to matter. When his own UNC party refused to nominate him for the safe seat which he resigned from, abruptly he  rebounded by forming his own Independent Liberal Party  (ILP) and overwhelmingly secured  the confidence of the heavily populated Indian community.

This unprecedented event screams that:  (1) Jack Warner is now directly responsible for his constituency of Chaguanas West and to no one else.   (2) Whatever Warner does right/wrong is no reflection on any others.   (3) Trinidadian Indian voters have boldly demonstrated the ability to think and vote regardless of race and across party politics. (4) A Caribbean black man is quite capable of being exclusively embraced by Indians when he champions Indian interests and promotes such national interest for the greater good for all.  (5) Indian voters consistently rise  above race as for example in Guyana when in 1964 they voted for the UF and in 2011 for the AFC, denying the ruling Indian-based PPP electoral majorities. (6) The black constituency consistently votes to maintain racial solidarity with kith and kin, for example in blacks,yet voting en masse for the PNC after 28  years of starvation in 1992 and their remigration back to the PNC in 2011 after the AFC’s rotated leadership went to the Indian Khemraj Ramjattan.

(7) Warner made it very clear that he will not do anything to bring down the ruling Trinidadian coalition led by Prime Minster Kamla Persad-Bissessar,  knowing that this will hurt his Chaguanas constituents. (7) What explains how Indian voters in both  Trinidad/Guyana are capable  so many times, that unlike blacks,  they will vote for anyone across rather than along racial  lines?

What indeed can AFC leader Khemraj Ramjattan and PNC leader David Granger learn, if anything, from Jack Warner? With no mandate or national consensus for shared governance or a coalition as both are outlawed by Guyana’s constitution, where do we go from here?. With the AFC’s ship slowly sinking after the traces  of corruption with Nigel and Cathy Hughes’s personal misadventures, the AFC  is faced with quite a predicament which cannot be hidden anymore. What it has achieved by being aligned with PNC obstruction, violence and mayhem is anybody’s guess? But it could have used its strategic clout in trading its votes on a case-by- case basis to benefit its constituents. But bitterness, among some AFC leaders, has proven hard to overcome.

Jack Warner must be some astute politician who knows not to threaten the established status quo until he gets stronger. Surprisingly, he is  slowly getting there, with  prominent UNC politicians defecting to his new ILP each week.

When Warner gets stronger, would he challenge the Indian-based UNC government to become prime minster? Even Basdeo Panday, the former UNC founder-leader was dumped by UNC members after he became a liability. Would Warner commit political suicide and challenge his constituents’ allegiance to remove a broad-based national government of their own race? The UF, WPA and ROAR all made similar mistakes and are now history.

The AFC’s close alliance with the PNC has been haemorrhaging the Indian votes nation-wide. Now the corruption stink which surrounds the Hughes couple is becoming a cancer with only one cure.
Many outstanding  black AFC supporters who sincerely want a third way are ashamed about what their party has degenerated into. It is sure to cost black votes and more apathy nationwide.
Let’s see whether the AFC will avoid the mistakes of the others.